


Run It For The Cardio

by PigSlay



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angry Kissing, Drug Jokes, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Holocaust Mention, M/M, POV Multiple, Sex Mentions, it's like 99 percent Zouis but I feel like the LiLo friendship is an important part too so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-08 01:51:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4286100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PigSlay/pseuds/PigSlay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“I was right to be nervous around you that first day.” Zayn shakes his head, laughing angrily. “But for some reason I thought it was just because I was nervous about making new friends. Nah, I knew to be nervous about the fact that you’re an annoying tool who only cares about himself and hearing himself talk.”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Wait a minute,” Louis smiles widely. “You were nervous meeting me?” Zayn has no idea why he’s smiling so widely right now. Being nervous around someone isn’t always a good thing – it could very well mean you’re afraid the other person will rob you or something.</i>
</p><p>Or the one where Zayn and Louis meet during art class at their university and their lives are never the same again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [liyumpeyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/liyumpeyn/gifts).



> I don’t know One Direction. In the universe of this fic, it's normal to introduce both your name and pronouns instead of just your name.
> 
> The Holocaust mention is in the beginning of Chapter 2 when Louis is in history class and it's not really in a good/sensitive light, so if you're triggered by that I'd definitely avoid that part. :/
> 
> To the person receiving this: This probably ended up with more drama than you expected from your cute prompts (it ended up with more drama than I expected too) but I hope you like it anyway. I combined 3 of your prompts. I was originally gonna work in the car crash prompt too but my characters were like "nah, forget that. We don't want a near-death experience" so yeah. :)
> 
> Also wanna say THANK YOU to tumblr user thestagandship for beta-ing this and dealing with my... ellipses problem. Hahah. ;) And to AO3 user maybelletea for reading it and not hating me forever even if I made Louis a bit of a jerk at the beginning (sorry). :P

**Zayn**

It’s Zayn’s first day of university and he’s so excited. For as long as he can remember, he’s been counting down the days until he’s old enough to go to university and study to become… _something_. He hasn’t figured out what that _something_ is just yet, but for now he’s just excited to be here.

His best friend, Niall, told him to apply to this school last year when they first started doing their applications, and well, who can say no to Niall? The two of them started renting a flat together almost as soon as they got their acceptance letters.

Zayn stands outside, preparing himself to go in. He walks up to someone who looks like they’re at least semi-familiar with the building. They even smell like they’ve been showing people where to go all day, the scent of the foyer noticeable as soon as he walks up to them.

“Hey,” Zayn says happily. “I was wondering if you could tell me how to get to my first class?”

“Sure,” the person responds immediately. _Woah,_ Zayn thinks. _Their voice is so deep_. “Uh… Can you show me your schedule?”

Zayn mentally slaps himself because duh, that’s kind of important. He sets his bag down on the grass and unzips it. He spends a lot of time digging around looking for it, but he finally finds it and hands it to Deep Voice.

“Oh,” they say. “That’s not too far from here. I can take you there easy.” They hand Zayn back his schedule and start moving. “By the way, I’m Harry, he/him.”

“Nice to meet you,” Zayn shakes his hand. “I’m Zayn, also he/him.” Harry was right, it doesn’t take long at all to get to the room. Actually, he thinks he may be a little too early to be honest. There’s only about two other people in the room right now. Still, he thanks Harry for the help and they wave goodbye to each other.

Zayn goes to sit down at a random desk, next to someone who looks like they’d rather be anywhere other than here. Their eyes are fluttering open and closed over and over again tiredly. Zayn actually finds it cute for some reason, but instead of admitting that, he says, “Class hasn’t even started yet.”

The person turns to face him with an unamused look. “Yes, I realize that, thank you very much. Doesn’t change the fact that I’m tired as heck from staying up until four in the morning.”

Zayn probably shouldn’t prod, but he can’t stop himself from asking. “Why were you up until four in the morning? Did you have an assignment for a summer class you didn’t finish or something?”

They laugh. “That’s cute, you think I was actually doing something productive. Oh man… Nah, I just stayed up watching old football games with my mate, Liam.”

“Why’d you do that if you knew the first day of school was in the morning?” Zayn asks.

They laugh again. “Oh my gosh, you’re such a teacher’s pet. It’s adorable.” _Oh_ , Zayn thinks. _They’re one of_ those _people. The ones that slack off and do basically nothing in class. This semester should be interesting…_ “Anyway. Where are my manners? Hi. I’m Louis, he/him.” He extends his hand.

“’m Zayn, he/him,” Zayn responds, shaking his hand. “So what are you majoring in?”

“I’m majoring in sleep,” Louis replies, putting his arm around Zayn’s shoulders and pretending to fall asleep on the one closest to him. Louis’ touch on Zayn’s shoulder is making his heart beat quicker, and he can’t stop noticing how pretty Louis’ eyelashes look. From a really objective standpoint of course. Like who _wouldn’t_ find those eyelashes pretty? It’s just common sense, not Zayn finding Louis hot or anything.

“Oh, like psychology or something?” Zayn questions.

Louis sits up again, removing his arm and head from Zayn’s shoulders. “Zayn, please,” he shakes his head. “It was just a joke, babe.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Zayn feels extremely embarrassed now. “I’m not good at judging sarcasm before like, noon…” _Also because you make me nervous and I’m not sure why_ , he doesn’t say.

“No, but I don’t know what I’m going to major in yet,” Louis continues, shrugging. “What about you?”

“I think I’ll join you in the sleeping major honestly,” Zayn replies, trying to get back in his “cool” books (if he ever really was in them). He’s not sure why he cares so much about the opinions of a stranger, but he wants the people at this university to like him.

Louis laughs. “I like you Zayn. I can tell we’re going to be really good mates.”

“We just met though,” Zayn raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah, but I can just tell,” Louis assures him. “Call it ‘bro at first sight’ or something.”

Zayn cracks up. ‘Bro at first sight’ – that has to be one of the most ridiculous things he’s ever heard. He loves it.

They don’t talk to each other much longer, mostly because people slowly start pouring in (including the teacher). After that day though, he decides Art is his favorite class and he can’t wait to go back to it on Wednesday.

***

“Zayn!” Louis calls when he sees him again that Wednesday. “Missed you, dude.”

Zayn sits down on the chair next to Louis, raising an eyebrow. “You saw me on Monday. For the first time I might add.”

“Yeah I know,” Louis agrees. “But I love being in your presence.”

Zayn isn’t sure how to respond to that, so he just sits and waits for the teacher to show up. As he’s waiting, Zayn can't drag his gaze away from the way the light hits Louis' cheekbones. He's got nice bone structure, objectively speaking. Really objectively, because Zayn definitely doesn't find him attractive. No, no, no. That would be weird.

“Good morning class,” Ms. Smith says, drawing Zayn’s attention away from Louis’ cheekbones. “We already went over the syllabus and important stuff on Monday, but even though you all know my name and pronouns, I don’t know anything about you all. So how about we go around the room and you can tell me your name, pronouns, and why you decided to take this class.”

“You’re one of _those_ teachers?” Louis grumbles loudly.

Zayn raises an eyebrow. What’s wrong with ‘those’ types of teachers? He’s always liked those types of teachers, the ones who actually want to get to know their students instead of just seeing them as objects or whatever.

“Do you have a problem with this?” Ms. Smith asks, her voice somehow remaining genuinely sweet.

“I don’t know,” Louis shrugs. “Just seems like the kind of thing pre-school nutters do, huh Zayn?” He elbows Zayn’s side.

Zayn doesn’t agree, but something about Louis’ touch makes him lose the thought he had before. “Uh yeah, definitely.”

“Hmm…” Ms. Smith considers. “Okay, put your hands up if you agree with this student.” Almost no one puts their hand up, except for one random kid in the back and Zayn half-heartedly because Louis is staring at him with expectation. “Alright then, so in that case let’s go around. How about we start with you two, since you obviously wanna get it over with.”

“Hi, I’m Louis, he/him,” Louis replies with a slight edge to his tone. “And I took this class because I needed to fill out an elective, and so I could draw pictures of my penis.”

“Must be a small drawing,” someone in the back calls. Zayn bites his lip and turns away so Louis doesn’t notice.

“No, no,” Louis responds, shaking it off. “I’m talking about mine, not yours.”

A few people laugh at that. Ms. Smith looks absolutely terrified. Zayn loves when University teachers act like all their students are still innocent kids and shouldn’t know about things like sex and private parts.

She clears her throat. “Well, I think that’s more of a second semester thing unfortunately. Uh… next person.” She motions to Zayn.

“I’m Zayn, he/him,” he replies. “I started taking this class because… umm… I don’t really know what I’m majoring in yet, but I’ve always loved art so.” He shrugs, and finds his eyes going towards Louis, as if he wants his approval or something. That would be ridiculous though, why would he need his approval?

Nonetheless, Zayn finds his thoughts going back to the smile Louis gives him and those unnaturally white teeth for the rest of the day.

***

“Alright class,” Ms. Smith announces on Friday. “Today we’re going to be doing our very first assignment!” Louis raises his hand, and she motions to him. “Yes?”

“Ooh!” Louis calls in a mock-child voice. “Do we get to color today? Because I left my crayons at home with my mummy!” He fake-pouts.

“Uh… no. No coloring. But what we ARE going to do is-”

“Wear pretty dresses?” Louis asks. “Do truth or dare and talk about all our crushes on BOYS?”

Zayn gives him an annoyed look and whispers, “Louis can you tone it down just a little bit? I kinda wanna pass this class.”

“Oh my gosh,” Louis fake-gasps. “Zayn just told me the boy he’s crushing on. So juicy.” He winks at Zayn, pretending to write down the name of Zayn’s ‘crush’. Zayn doesn’t notice the way Louis’ wink kind of made his heart jump – no, no. Instead he just keeps glaring at him until Ms. Smith _finally_ gets a chance to tell them what the assignment actually is without Louis interrupting (which takes a pretty long time).

***

One week later, Zayn kind of just wants to stab himself with a fork so he doesn’t have to hear Louis ask Ms. Smith even more nonsensical questions. She was talking to them about how well they all did on their assignments, then somehow Louis turned the conversation to peanuts instead.

Zayn still doesn’t understand how that happened, but he’s learned to not underestimate Louis’ ability to make a conversation about pretty much everything… except the subject matter at hand. The class ends a few minutes later and before leaving, Zayn tries to reason with Louis.

“Listen Louis,” he says as they both start packing up. “I know you said you’re only taking this class to fulfill an elective requirement and you probably don’t actually care about the subject matter-”

Louis fake gasps. “I care a lot about peanuts, Zayn. Peanuts ARE art.”

“Yeah, yeah, peanuts are amazing,” Zayn agrees. “But what I’m trying to say is… some of us in this class actually want to talk about non-peanut related art so that we can actually pass the class. So can you please, please just tone down the unrelated questions just a bit for me?”

“Oh come on,” Louis replies. “It’s just jokes, babe. She eventually _did_ talk to us about the actual artists, yeah? Besides, based on the number of people who laugh at my jokes, I think you’re the only one actually caring about your grades in here.” He stands up, pushing his bag over his shoulder. “Seriously Zayn, learn how to take a joke. That’s how you’ll survive Uni.” He boops Zayn’s nose and walks out the door.

At that moment, Zayn is sure of two things: 1. Louis has extremely soft fingers (which you know, are probably also covered in dirt from something and Zayn’s definitely gonna wash his face when he gets back to his flat), and 2. Zayn really, really, hates Louis.

As he goes back to his flat, he realizes he should’ve listened to his first impression of Louis that first day (lazy guy who slacks off and does pretty much nothing in class), but he was trying to give him a chance because he called Zayn his ‘bro at first sight’ or whatever.

Well, forget ‘bros at first sight’. Zayn is ready to fight him, ready to make him regret saying that Zayn should learn to “just take a joke”.

***

It’s Monday and once again, Louis just won’t stop asking useless off topic questions when Zayn is trying to learn. Louis raises his hand and Zayn mentally prepares himself for the garbage Louis’ about to speak and pass off as a “joke”.

Ms. Smith is talking about Picasso’s work right now, and no matter how nonchalant she may be trying to be, it’s obvious to Zayn she’s fighting back an eye roll already when she sees Louis’ hand.

“Yes Louis?” she asks, being more polite than he deserves. If Zayn was the teacher, he would’ve just ignored Louis’ hand and kept teaching like it wasn’t there.

“Yes,” Louis starts. “Why exactly are you showing us pictures of screwed up faces? Are you trying to encourage us to use drugs when we paint or something?”

Ms. Smith clears her throat, ignoring the laughs from some people in the row behind Louis and Zayn. “Well, Picasso _did_ do drugs until 1908 according to-”

“So you _are_ encouraging us to do drugs,” Louis pushes. He shakes his head. “Wow, a teacher encouraging university students to use drugs. Pretty sure that’s against the rules. We should probably tell the dean about this.”

Ms. Smith sighs and looks at the clock. “Well, I guess that’s all for class today. Don’t forget to do your assignment tonight, class.”

“Yeah,” Louis yells, standing up. “Don’t forget to go home and do drugs!” He laughs loudly and starts walking out of the classroom.

Zayn can’t take it anymore. He gets all his things and follows Louis outside, cornering him in the hall. “Louis, what is your problem?”

“What ever do you mean?” Louis bats his eyes innocently. “I think you should be more worried about our teacher. She’s the one encouraging university students to do drugs.”

“It’s not funny,” Zayn insists. “Louis, you need to stop asking such off-topic questions all the time. As hard as it is to believe, some of us actually take our grades seriously around here.”

Louis chuckles. “Is that why I always see you doodling in the middle of taking notes?”

“Wow, Louis,” Zayn responds sarcastically. “I can’t believe you pay so much attention to what I do in class. How romantic.” With an eye roll, he continues, “I only doodle when you’re asking the teacher dumb off-topic questions. Besides, it helps me focus sometimes.”

“Yeah, well, you should draw better doodles if you really want to focus,” Louis challenges.

Zayn is so angry. He knows the doodles he makes during class aren’t his best, but that’s why they’re _in_ Art class isn’t it? To learn how to improve. Or at least some of them are…

“I was right to be nervous around you that first day.” He shakes his head, laughing angrily. “But for some reason I thought it was just because I was nervous about making new friends. Nah, I knew to be nervous about the fact that you’re an annoying tool who only cares about himself and hearing himself talk.”

“Wait a minute,” Louis smiles widely. “You were nervous meeting me?” Zayn has no idea why he’s smiling so widely right now. Being nervous around someone isn’t always a good thing – it could very well mean you’re afraid the other person will rob you or something.

Still, Louis’ grin isn’t faltering. Zayn wants to do anything to get rid of that dumb face. “That’s so adorable, Zaynie. Did you have a wittle cwush on me?” The nickname, coupled with the baby talk, is enough to send Zayn over the edge.

All at once, Zayn grabs Louis’ face and forces his lips onto his, hard and demanding. Demanding to make Louis shut the heck up, demanding to get rid of that ugly happy face, and demanding to show him how superior Zayn is over him.

Zayn can feel Louis trying to fight back just as hard, but he won’t let him. Zayn’s keeping the upper hand here. His heart is beating fast, an adrenaline rush coming over him. He can’t really think about anything except Louis’ lips, oh yeah, and the fact that he hates Louis more than anyone else in the world. He knows people are probably watching them, but he doesn’t care.

He hears a weird sound and opens his eyes to see that both of them are almost completely on the floor, and that Louis apparently hit the wall really hard. He’s stopped fighting back and instead is just letting Zayn handle all the kissing while wrapping his arms around his back and looking like he’s in pain.

 _Good_ , Zayn thinks to himself, finally pulling away. He smirks, satisfied with how destroyed Louis looks.

“See you in class on Wednesday.” He winks and walks away.

 

**Louis**

Louis has no idea what just happened. Zayn was so angry at him, and he… kissed him. He kissed him so hard that Louis is now in pain from hitting his back against the wall, and Louis thinks Zayn liked it.

 _Kinky_ , Louis thinks to himself, giggling slightly.

The truth is, Louis has actually had a crush on Zayn since that very first day. He may annoy Zayn sometimes, but that’s just because he’s Louis. He never really meant anything serious by it. Zayn though, Zayn seems to actually hate him.

Louis isn’t sure how he should feel about that. Mostly, he kind of finds it funny. Like, of course his first crush in this school would already hate him. Of course. That thing Zayn said before they started angry-kissing though, about how Louis made him nervous on the first day kind of gives Louis hope? He’s not sure if that really should be his reaction but it is nonetheless.

If the thought of Louis being absolutely ruined by Zayn pleases him though – _Again, so kinky_ – Louis thinks maybe he won’t do anything to make Zayn stop hating him. At least not yet. If giving Louis kisses is how Zayn channels his anger (no matter how painful and demanding they may be), Louis is going to do everything to make sure he deserves being punished by Zayn. He needs to stop now though because he’s getting wet just thinking about it.

“Need a hand bro?” It’s Liam. Of course he would show up right at this moment. It’s like Liam can detect when Louis needs something, anything (even if it’s something as silly as someone to stay up all night watching sports with).

“How do you always know just the right time to show up?” Louis asks, smiling, and very carefully taking Liam’s hand. “I swear, sometimes I think you’re stalking me or something- Ooh.” He makes a sound of pain when he stands up, back still hurting a bunch.

“Woah, easy,” Liam holds Louis steady, making sure he doesn’t fall. Carefully he holds Louis with one hand and pulls up the back of his shirt with another. “Wow, what happened? Your back is extremely red.”

“Yeah, I feel that,” Louis tries. He doesn’t want to tell Liam the whole story of what happened though because then he might be angry with Zayn before even meeting him, and for some reason, even if he _did_ hurt him, Louis doesn’t want that. “Uh… You saw me on the floor when you got here. I hit the wall over there pretty hard.”

It really doesn’t fully answer Liam’s question, but (thank goodness) he doesn’t press any further on the subject. “Come on, I’m gonna take you to the nurse.”

Louis scoffs. “Liam, it’s not _that_ serious.”

“Your back is still red,” Liam pushes. “And besides, your next class doesn’t start for another hour. Come on.”

“So you ARE stalking me,” Louis says as he and Liam start walking to the closest lift.

Now it’s Liam’s turn to scoff. “Have you already forgotten the part where we told each other our class schedules at the beginning of the semester?”

“You can never play along with me just once, can you?” Louis sighs exaggeratedly.

“Nope,” Liam responds proudly.

***

It’s Wednesday. Louis is in Art class, once again being as annoying as he can be. The teacher is talking about the color wheel, which Louis always found extremely interesting.

Instead of admitting that out loud though, he says, “Didn’t we learn this in grade school already?”

“We’ve got to go over the basics again,” Ms. Smith responds, obviously holding back a glare. “That way anyone who has forgotten them feels comfortable.”

Louis nods. “Are we gonna re-learn the ABCs too? I always get lost after O, you know.” A few people are giggling behind him, and he can feel Zayn’s eyes on him, but he doesn’t stop.

Ms. Smith sighs. “I don’t know, Louis. How about you ask your English professor?”

Louis fake-pouts. “Aww… do you not remember them either?”

Ms. Smith just turns back to the board instead of responding, continuing to talk about the color wheel as if Louis isn’t there anymore. It only lasts a few moments though because, naturally, class is over just a few minutes later.

As Louis was hoping for, Zayn corners him a little bit later, in almost the same spot as before. Zayn is glaring at him and he’s just smirking widely.

“Does your face ever get tired from always being in an angry expression?” Louis ponders, fake-pouting.

“I don’t know,” Zayn answers. “Does your mouth ever get tired of asking dumb questions in the middle of class?”

Louis pretends to think for a moment. “No, not really.”

Zayn shakes his head. “Why are you so insufferable?”

“I don’t know,” Louis responds, eyes moving towards Zayn’s lips and back to his eyes a few times. “What are you gonna do about it? Kiss me or something?”

Zayn is taken aback all of a sudden. “I… what? Why would I kiss you? We’re supposed to hate each other.”

Louis shrugs. “Yeah and I thought according to you we kissed the people we hated. Or that’s what you did on Monday at least.” Louis knows the point of angry kissing is that you’re not supposed to actually _talk_ about it, but he can’t help himself right now. “Come on Zayn, kiss me.” He even puckers his lips for good measure.

“Uh…” Zayn looks at a loss for words now, anger seemingly dissolved from his face. “I… I gotta go.”

With that, he runs away, leaving Louis alone. Louis frowns. Why did he do that? He’s afraid now he’s ruined his one way of kissing Zayn (even though it’s probably not a very healthy way to be honest…).

Of course, naturally, Liam would walk up to him at that exact moment, concerned look on his face. “Did something happen, babe?”

“Okay, seriously,” Louis says, trying to sound humorous but instead the words betray a bit of his sadness. “How do you always find me when I’m either physically or emotionally unwell?”

Liam frowns. Instead of answering the question, he just asks, “Do you wanna get some coffee and talk about it?”

“You know what? That actually sounds perfect.” The two boys head to the closest coffee place nearby, Louis just ordering a hot chocolate instead because he thinks it’s too late for actual coffee (“No such thing!” Liam had objected).

Louis tells Liam everything, from his crush on Zayn to him being the reason Louis’ back was hurt that Monday. He’s afraid Liam will judge him, or lecture him on why it’s wrong to want more of that, but when he’s done, all Liam does is hug him.

“Louis…” Liam starts sympathetically, moving back to his own seat. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I don’t know,” Louis replies, licking at the whipped cream on top of his hot chocolate. “I was afraid you’d judge me, that you’d think he was a bad person for doing that.”

“Well…” Liam looks like he’s trying to think of the best way to phrase whatever he’s going to say next. “It’s not exactly healthy, to enjoy the fact that someone you like hates you. But in the end I don’t know him, so I trust you to know better than I do. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Thanks, Liam.” The two boys share genuine smiles at each other for a few moments, then move on to talking about school and random other things instead. Louis is so glad he has Liam.

 

**Zayn**

Zayn goes home to him and Niall’s flat, completely weirded out. “Hey Zayn!” Niall waves when he sees him. “I’m making samosas tonight. With the recipe your mum gave me last spring, so it won’t be highly embarrassing.” He giggles.

Zayn just nods at him distantly. Niall immediately knows something’s up then. “Zayn… what’s going on? Did you fail a test or something?”

Zayn glares at him for a moment, then eventually gives up and sighs, sinking onto one of the chairs in the kitchen. “You remember that annoying guy I told you about? Louis?”

“Yeah,” Niall confirms, keeping his eyes on the samosas-in-progress. “I remember you told me you destroyed him on Monday. Which I still don’t get what that means, but whatever.”

“I kissed him,” Zayn admits. Saying it out loud makes him feel so weird he actually starts… snickering. The idea of kissing Louis for a reason other than anger amuses him a lot.

“What?” Niall asks, finally looking up from the samosas. “You’re joking right?”

Zayn giggles for a few moments and then straightens himself. “No, I’m not. I kissed him, angrily. As revenge for him being so obnoxious in class and asking off-topic questions. To show him he’s not as in charge as he thinks he is. He looked proper ruined when I was finished with him.” Niall raises an eyebrow, but Zayn doesn’t think much of it.

“But then… today.” Zayn’s mood turns from hilarity to weirdness again. “Today he _asked_ me to kiss him. He even puckered his lips and everything.”

Niall snorts. “Maybe he was just trying to rile you up or something,” he deadpans.

“Yeah,” Zayn agrees. “Yeah! That’s probably it. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. Ridiculous of me to think it could be for any other reason than that.” Zayn gets up, putting a kiss on Niall’s cheek. “Thanks Niall. Come get me when the samosas are ready!” As he runs to his room, Niall’s still staring at him with a face too difficult for him to read.

***

That night, Zayn goes to the place where he works: a small fast food restaurant just a few streets away from his and Niall’s flat. Tonight the restaurant is even busier than usual, which Zayn doesn’t understand. There’s nothing special about Wednesday. Maybe it’s some holiday he doesn’t know about or something, whatever.

He shrugs, putting those thoughts aside and returning his attention to the front. “May I take your order?” he asks, not really digesting who’s in front of him at first, and then… oh.

“I most certainly hope you can!” Louis replies, smiling widely.

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” Zayn mutters. Of course, of _course_ Louis would show up at his work space. “Are you stalking me or something?” he whispers.

“Don’t flatter yourself too much, love,” Louis responds. “Me and my mate Liam here were just feeling up to eating out somewhere tonight and coincidentally decided on the place you work at. Funny how that works, huh?” He knows Louis is just trying to rile him up again, like Niall had said about the earlier incident. He can’t do anything about it here though, if he wants to keep his job.

“Yeah, funny,” Zayn mumbles. He takes a deep breath, thinking of everything he’s going to do as payback to Louis next time he sees him, and asks louder, “So what do you and err… Liam, want exactly?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” Louis winks. Zayn doesn’t understand this guy at all. Why is he making sexual innuendos or whatever about getting food? He must have some weird kinks… Zayn bites his lip to stop himself from laughing at his own joke.

Louis and another person, who he assumes is Liam, exchange words for a few minutes. Zayn’s getting impatient, and is like 90% convinced they’re not even talking about the food options here anymore (if they even were in the first place). It seems the customers behind them are too, if their “hurry up!” shouts are anything to go by…

Finally, they stop whispering to each other and Louis speaks. “Okay, Liam says he’ll have a small cheese pizza and some water.”

Zayn snorts. “Are you his spokesperson or something?” He thinks he sees a bit of a blush on Liam’s cheeks at that. He ignores it though and just repeats “small cheese pizza” into the microphone so the cooks can hear. “Is that all?”

“’Fraid not,” Louis fake-pouts. “I’m sorry, I know how much you hate being distracted by me. Are you getting _nervous_ , Zayn?” He wiggles his eyebrows and Zayn wishes he could slap him right now.

As it is though, he just clears his throat. “So what else do you want then?”

“I’ll have a chicken sandwich and some iced tea, thanks,” Louis grins.

“Chicken sandwich,” Zayn says into the microphone, then walks over to get Louis and Liam two cups for them to fill up with their desired drinks. “Enjoy your evening,” he tells them half-heartedly, taking the money they hand to him.

After that, Zayn just works on auto-pilot until his shift is over. He can’t believe Louis of all people found where he works. Of course he would though, because Allah just ‘loves’ Zayn that way… He’s never been more happy about getting to leave than he is that night when his shift is over.


	2. Chapter 2

**Louis**

History gets more boring by the second. Something Louis’ learned quickly is that Mr. Repass has the absolute worst monotone, and it puts everyone except the biggest nerds in the class to sleep.

Heck, Louis thinks he actually _did_ see the biggest nerd in the class (somebody named Eric or something?) falling asleep a few minutes ago. He tries to focus on the joy he got from crashing Zayn’s work space on Wednesday and how he got “punished” for it today after Art class.

Zayn had literally dragged Louis to his flat, not looking at him when they were on the bus to get there. Louis had had another class in a few minutes, but he didn’t care at that moment. He let Zayn drag him through his flat, silently admiring paintings on the walls that he thought had to be Zayn’s, until they reached Zayn’s room.

“This one is for asking more annoying questions in class,” Zayn had started, pushing Louis against the wall and kissing him extremely hard. He paused for a moment. “And this one is for coming into my work place!” He inserted his tongue into Louis’ mouth and oh man, did that feel good.

Even when their teeth banged hard against each other, Louis never wanted it to stop. Zayn pushed him out the door when he thought he’d been ‘wrecked enough’, but after that Louis had just taken a moment to sigh happily. Oh how he wishes he were back in Zayn’s flat now.

He’s not sure how, but Mr. Repass has found a way to be even MORE boring today. They’re talking about the Holocaust, which is honestly one of the worst (but also most interesting) moments of human history, and he thought not even Mr. Repass could make such a traumatic event boring, but here they are.

Louis is ready to just use the desk as a pillow and close his eyes right here and now. Apparently when Louis is extra tired and annoyed, he makes bad decisions though, so he finds himself speaking up instead.

“Mr. Repass,” he says, not even waiting for the teacher to finish whatever run-on sentence he was saying. “Let me ask you a question. Why is it you’re the most boring teacher ever? Why do you make even the worst moment in human history absolutely _tedious_ to learn about by speaking in a monotone voice that puts even the most attentive students to sleep? Isn’t it a requirement that teachers be engaging with their students or whatever?”

Around him, he can hear some students laughing, a few people making “ooh” sounds, and one scoffing.

“Louis,” Mr. Repass says angrily. “Leave.”

“Wow,” Louis gasps. “That’s the most dynamic your voice has ever sounded before, bravo.” He claps, resulting in a few more giggles.

“I said, leave.”

Louis shrugs, getting up. “Fine. I think even the silence of the hallway will be more interesting than your voice.” He closes the door before the teacher can say anything else to him.

He sighs. He’s about to just take the bus and go back to his and Liam’s flat, since that was his last class of the day anyway, but since Louis just has the greatest timing in the world, who would come over there at that exact moment other than Zayn?

At first he kind of expects Zayn to keep walking, but he stops in front of Louis. “You look terrible.”

“Thanks,” Louis responds, smiling even though his heart is beating super quickly all of a sudden. “I got kicked out of History class for telling our knob of a professor that he was boring.” Louis isn’t sure why he felt the need to share that information with Zayn. Maybe part of him thinks if he tells him how annoying he is to professors, he’ll get another angry make-out session or something.

Zayn snorts. “I’m surprised Ms. Smith hasn’t followed that professor’s example to be honest. But she’s too nice for her own good and probably thinks you’ll change.” He rolls his eyes. “We all know you won’t though.”

Even though he knows it should hurt, that makes Louis grin even wider. “Does that make you _angry_ , Zayn? Do you want to drag me to your flat again?”

“Well, yeah, it kind of _does_ make me angry to be honest,” Zayn fires back, ignoring the comment about the flat. “Like why did you even come to university in the first place if all you’re going to be is a lazy jerk who wastes everyone’s time?”

Okay, that _did_ kind of hurt. Louis frowns, taken aback. After a few moments, he says softly, “I went to university because I wanted to make my mum proud. I wanted to be able to tell her I made something of myself. That I could do something without messing up. I… I guess I failed and I’m sorry about that.”

He hurries away, deciding he doesn’t want to start crying in front of Zayn and have him see Louis as even more weak than he already does. He doesn’t look back once as he gets on the bus and heads to his and Liam’s flat.

When he walks in the door, Liam is making some good smelling food. “Hey Tommo,” Liam calls from the kitchen. “Was just whipping up some pasta for when you got home. It’s a bit early though, isn’t it? Did Repass bug you too much?”

Louis puts down his backpack and tries to calm the shaking in his body and put on a fake smile. It shouldn’t be hard, he thinks. He’s faked a smile almost every day of his life. What is this but just another day?

He breathes in, trying to sound as calm as possible. “Uh, yeah. I kinda called him out on being a knob and he sent me out of class.” Louis chuckles.

He thinks he sounds pretty convincing himself, but Liam has always had a way of seeing through Louis’ figurative walls he has up. Liam stops stirring the pasta for a moment and looks at Louis. “Louis, what’s wrong?”

“What do you mean?” Louis asks, smile slowly starting to come undone. “I’m good, I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”

“Tommo,” Liam repeats seriously, and Louis knows at that point there’s no sense in denying anything to him, because he’s not going to give up. It’s one of Louis’ favorite and least favorite things about him.

Suddenly Louis drops the act, letting out all the tears that he hadn’t wanted Zayn to see. “He hates me,” Louis cries. “I mean I knew he hated me before, but for some reason I hadn’t thought it was as serious as it really is. He… he really hates me, Liam.” Louis wipes his eyes with his sleeves.

“Lou,” Liam quickly turns the stove off, apparently not caring whether the pasta is done or not, and walks over to wrap his arms around Louis. “What did he say?”

“He asked me why I even came to university,” Louis sniffles, falling into Liam’s touch. “Why I even came to university if I was just gonna be a lazy jerk who wastes everyone’s time.” He pauses for a moment, looking up at Liam, then looking back to the floor. “What if he’s right, Liam? What if I’m just wasting everyone’s time? My mum will never be proud of me. All I do is speak before I think, and annoy everybody I care about by being lazy.”

“Louis, hey,” Liam uses his finger to raise Louis’ face to look at his again. “He’s wrong, okay? He is. Your mum will be very proud of you for getting an education, and for not taking any teacher’s garbage. But…”

Liam pauses for a moment, looking like he’s contemplating the best way to phrase it. “If his opinion really means that much to you, don’t use it as a way to destroy yourself. Instead try to start paying attention during class more, and maybe, with time, he’ll come around.”

“What if he doesn’t though, Liam?” Louis asks weakly. He hates the idea of that, of Zayn truly, completely hating him forever. He liked getting angry kisses out of it, but he doesn’t like Zayn saying he’s a lazy jerk who wastes everyone’s time. “What if he never comes around?”

“Then he’s just not worthy of your time, babe,” Liam responds, gently massaging his shoulders. “You deserve someone who doesn’t just call you out on your flaws, but also appreciates them, appreciates every part of you. Because nobody’s perfect, but you’re not a lost cause either.” He presses a kiss to Louis’ forehead.

“You’re so corny, you know that?” is all Louis can reply with.

Liam shrugs happily. “I do, but I mean all of it.”

Louis smiles back at him, and hopes Liam’s right that he’s not a lost cause. He sure feels like one today though. “Well,” he stands up, wiping his eyes. “Now that we’ve filled our daily heart-to-heart quota, can we eat something? I’m starving.”

“I’m pretty sure the pasta was still nowhere near ready when I turned off the stove, and probably overcooked now,” Liam snorts. “But I’ll make a new batch for you.”

Louis pretends to swoon. “A man after my heart.” Liam giggles at that and things seem to fade back to normal.

 

**Zayn**

Zayn has no idea what happened. Ever since his encounter with Louis in the hallway, Louis has been… different. He’s not sure how to feel about this “different” either. Like, he should be happy, he thinks. He got what he wanted, right? Louis has stopped asking dumb questions to distract the teacher, and he can actually focus and take notes for once.

Except, he can’t focus very well because that day keeps flashing in his mind over and over again. Louis had looked so hurt by Zayn’s words, and the thing he had muttered about wanting to make his mum proud – Zayn related to that. He also wants to make his mum proud, be able to get a good job one day and give back to her.

He hates Louis though. Doesn’t he? That’s what he thought, at least. Now though… he has nothing to hate him for. Louis has gone silent during class discussions, and is even sitting far from Zayn in the back… so why does Zayn want him back beside him again?

***

“Well I mean, you just said it yourself,” Niall says. He and Zayn are sitting on the couch in the living room of their flat, because Zayn decided he couldn’t keep his emotions inside anymore. “He hasn’t been asking any annoying questions lately, which is why you hated him in the first place, right?”

“Yeah, but… I don’t know,” Zayn grumbles, afraid he’s annoying Niall with this discussion. It’s not like he’s his therapist or anything. “I don’t get it, Niall. Why won’t my brain let me stop hating him?”

“Maybe it’s because you never really hated him in the first place,” Niall offers.

“…What?” Zayn questions, not sure what in the world Niall is on about. ‘Never really hated him in the first place’? What does that even mean?

Niall shakes his head. “Zayn, you and I have been friends since like, forever. I’ve seen you go through many crushes over the years, and I know how you work. You almost always use ‘hate’ as a defense mechanism to stop yourself from admitting you’re crushing on someone. Do you remember Joey, from Year 10?”

Zayn cringes. “I try really hard not to.”

“Yeah, well, I do,” Niall continues. “I remember before you admitted to having a crush on him, you would steal his comic books, hide them, and then get angry when he accused you of doing such.”

“Niall!” Zayn responds, offended. “Did you _see_ some of the comic books he had? I was jealous of his collection.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Niall takes a sip of his coffee from the table in front of them. “Because I remember your exact words to me were _‘Niall, I think I have a crush on him. That’s not allowed to happen. I’m supposed to hate him.’_ ” Zayn blushes at the fact that Niall remembers all this perfectly.

“It’s different this time though,” Zayn insists. “Louis really _is_ annoying.”

Niall puts his hands up. “Hey, I’m sure the fact that he distracted you from taking notes actually did annoy you. I’m not denying that. I’m just saying that, maybe now that he’s stopped doing it, your brain is trying to convince you that you still hate him as a defense mechanism from admitting you have a crush on him.” Niall stands up slowly, taking his coffee cup with him.

He sighs. “In the end, I’m not you, Zayn. I can’t make decisions for you. But I do feel like, if you’re really feeling guilty about what you said to him, maybe you should think about the reasons why.” With that, he walks away, leaving Zayn alone with his thoughts.

Could it be true? Zayn wonders to himself. Could he really be still ‘hating’ Louis because he doesn’t want to face his true feelings about him?

***

“Rough day?” Harry asks from behind Zayn.

Zayn turns around to face him and chuckles. “More like rough life, lately…” The two boys are in English class, waiting for the teacher to arrive. He’s always late, so they’re kind of used to it by this point.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Harry nods sympathetically. He wraps an arm around Zayn, his face a look that’s asking if this is okay. Zayn leans into it, hoping that answers his question.

Ever since that first day when Harry showed Zayn to his first class, and then saw him later that day in English, they’ve become friends. They don’t talk that often, just like a text here and there complaining about homework assignments and what not. Harry quickly learned Zayn’s boundaries, and how he doesn’t always wish to talk to, or be touched by, other people. Zayn appreciates that.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Harry asks softly, that expression on his face again. Zayn thinks for a moment he probably shouldn’t, but what harm could come of it?

“Sure,” Zayn replies. “So like, this guy and I. We’ve been enemies since like four days after term started or something. Because he’s just one of those annoying people who won’t stop asking off-topic questions to annoy the professor. And we’ve been down each other’s throats since.” _Literally_ , he thinks to himself.

“But then one day, I caught him in the hallway.” Zayn frowns. “He had been kicked out of History for doing that same thing in a different class. I asked him why he even came to university if he was just going to slack off. And then he said that he had come to make his mum proud, and that he had obviously failed. Then he ran away.” Saying it out loud just makes Zayn feel like an even bigger jerk.

Harry frowns too. “Have you like… said anything to each other since then?”

“What am I supposed to say, Harry?” Zayn questions honestly. “We’ve hated each other since almost the day school started. And admitting I was wrong to someone is just a weak move right?”

Harry stares at him with so much confusion, Zayn’s not sure what to make of it. “No, Zayn. Are you kidding? That doesn’t make you weak. Actually, I’d say it makes you pretty strong. No matter what your feelings on someone are, admitting out loud to someone that you did them wrong takes a lot of courage.”

“Thanks Harry,” Zayn replies honestly. Harry nods at him, and just then they hear the sound of the teacher finally coming into the room. Zayn decides he’s going to try to take Harry’s advice. He’s not sure when or how he’ll get the courage to do it, but he’s going to eventually.

 

**Louis**

“Hey Louis,” Ms. Smith says as everyone else files out of the room. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Louis picks up his bag and papers and walks over to her desk. “What’s up? Did I forget to do a homework assignment or something?”

“No,” she shakes her head. “Actually I wanted to talk to you about how you’ve been behaving in class recently.”

Louis is confused. “What do you mean? I haven’t been asking any dumb questions anymore or anything.”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” she sighs. He’s getting even more confused by the second. So did she ENJOY his off-topic questions? Because she sure as heck didn’t look like she did…

“Listen, Louis. I know as lecturers we’re not supposed to actually approach you about these things. That you _‘need to do them yourself’_ or whatever. But these past few weeks you haven’t looked like yourself. Even though I’d like to think you just turned over a new leaf and decided you wanted to be really focused on your curriculum instead, I don’t think that’s it.”

Louis gulps. “Why? Because I’m just a lazy person who just wastes everybody’s time?” He sweats nervously.

“No, no, no, no,” she tells him. “Absolutely not. It’s because, when you first got here, you were so upbeat and happy, and even though I was a bit annoyed by your lack of relevant questions, I liked the general good feelings you just brought to the room.” She reaches into her pocket. “I shouldn’t do this, because you didn’t ask for my help and all, but I’m giving you the number for the counseling center. Anytime you need to talk about something, they’ll be there.”

He nods, taking the card from her hand. “Thank you. Really.” She nods back to him, and he walks away. Zayn was right about one thing: Ms. Smith really _is_ too nice for her own good. He appreciates it though. Speak of the devil, there he is. Standing against the wall outside the door of the classroom. Louis tries to just walk away, but his feet force him to stay in place. They do nothing but stare at each other for a few minutes.

“Are you lost on what to say because I’m so gorgeous?” Louis teases, because as he’s quickly learned, his natural defense mechanism is comedy. “It’s okay, I get that a lot.” He winks.

Zayn looks like there’s a huge lump in his throat, and it kind of makes Louis feel sad to see Zayn this way. “There’s something I need to tell you, and I can’t let myself chicken out.”

“Are you proposing to me?” Louis fake gasps, even though he realizes that was kind of a jerk move since Zayn seems to really be messed up over whatever it is he needs to say.

“I’m… I’m…” Zayn’s looking down at the ground. “I’m s…” He looks up at Louis then and seems to not be able to finish his sentence, instead running away crying.

Hmm… well, that was awkward to say the least. Louis frowns. He really wants to know what Zayn was going to say. The conversation, if you could even call it that, continues replaying in his head throughout the rest of the day, even as he’s going back to his flat that evening.

“It’s just so weird, Payno,” he’s saying now, sipping on an alcoholic beverage he can’t even remember the name of at this point. “He looked and sounded like he was going to apologize or something.”

Liam frowns at him. “Louis, I know you like him, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up for an apology that may never come. What if he just isn’t sorry and has no shame about what he said?”

“It means a lot that you care about me so much, Liam,” Louis responds genuinely. “But we’re going to be in this class together for another four months. I feel like we should at least try to talk to each other about whatever problems we may have with each other.”

Liam raises an eyebrow. “Do you feel the same way about every other student you may have gotten into a fight with at some point?”

“Well… no,” Louis admits softly, chugging some more of the alcohol. “But Zayn isn’t just every other student to me.” He shocks himself with those words, them coming out before he can stop them. He decides to go get rid of the remainder of the alcohol and get himself some water. “You know, I think that’s enough alcohol for tonight. I think I’ll go to sleep now.”

Liam grabs his arm before he can walk all the way to his room. “Louis, wait.” Louis sighs, turning around to face Liam and silently hoping he’s not going to give him yet another lecture. “I know how important it is to you to get closure with this guy. And I won’t stop you from doing whatever you think it takes to get that. I just want you to know that if that closure never comes, I’ll be here for you.”

Louis nods gratefully and pulls Liam into a tight hug. That night, Louis is once again left feeling happy he has Liam as a friend and flatmate. Liam always knows the right words to say, even when he doesn’t completely agree with Louis’ views, and Louis is so thankful for it.

Chugging down the water, he almost immediately falls asleep. All night all he can think of is what he’s going to do in order to get Zayn to talk to him without running away. He needs to know what Zayn was going to say.

He goes through a few ideas in his head but when he thinks about them again in the morning, it’s obvious they only made sense to him last night because he was drunk. He decides he needs to take a walk or something. He tells Liam he’s going out and will be back soon, taking his wallet with him.

Louis walks outside the door of their flat and starts to head to where the lifts are. When he gets there, who would be in the nearest lift and trying to press the “door closed” button (probably heading to work) except Zayn? Louis thinks this is the most ridiculous idea he’s ever had, but he runs into the lift, just barely making it, and presses all the buttons. He waits for a moment then turns to Zayn with a wide smile.

 

**Zayn**

“You started it!” is what Louis keeps saying. Zayn’s not sure how he started it by just trying to take a lift to his job in peace. Really, Zayn’s mostly just confused why Louis even wants to be near him after the way Zayn treated him. He’d probably deserve it if Louis never wanted to be around him again.

Around the fifth time the door opens and closes though, Louis’ face falters. “Alright, I’m going to be honest. I didn’t just do this as a ridiculous prank or whatever. I did this because the two of us need to talk about our feelings, no matter how long it takes or how embarrassing it gets.”

Zayn really doesn’t want to do that. The whole reason he ran away yesterday was because he _can’t_ talk about his feelings, he _can’t_ admit he was wrong. Call it too much pride or something, but it’s hard for him to admit when he’s done wrong. Still, something about the determined look on Louis’ face makes him not able to say no in the moment (and it’s not like he really has a choice until they get to the bottom floor), so he just nods.

“Okay,” Louis breathes in. “I’ll go first.” he pauses for a few more minutes though. Zayn doesn’t say anything, just lets Louis take his time to think. “So Zayn, when I first met you that very first day in art class, I meant what I said by ‘bro at first sight’. Because I really do like you Zayn. I may have ruined my chances to get to know you better, but that wasn’t my intention.

“The thing is,” he continues, eyes unwavering from Zayn’s eyes. “I’ve always been bad at biting my tongue. You could ask literally any of my friends or family and they’ll tell you the same. I’ve always been a bit annoying to my teachers, talking too much and asking off-topic questions. That’s just me. And I’m sorry for doing it. I thought…”

Are those… _tears_ Zayn sees forming in his eyes?

“I thought we were just messing around, mostly,” Louis says. “I know I took it a beat too far with that 'learn to take a joke' comment, but I didn’t realize you actually _hated_ me until you said that thing about why I even came to university in the first place. Because, that’s actually a big insecurity of mine. That I really am just wasting everyone’s time, including my own, trying to make a life for myself when I’m just, me.”

He wipes his eyes with his sleeves. “So, I’m sorry Zayn. I’m sorry that all I do is waste everybody’s time, I'm sorry for telling you to 'learn to take a joke', and I'm sorry for asking so many annoying questions to distract Ms. Smith.” He turns his face to the floor.

Zayn can’t do anything but blink at him for a few moments. He can’t believe Louis really just admitted all that to him. Louis is much more courageous than Zayn pegged him for. He’s not sure if anything he can say will really prove to Louis that he’s sorry now, but he has to try.

He takes a few deep breaths, and finally speaks, heart heavy in his chest. “Honestly Louis, you have nothing to apologize for. Like yeah, it definitely annoyed me that you would ask irrelevant questions, because I take my grades extremely seriously, and that you said I didn't have a sense of humor because of that. But…” he pauses for a moment, looking away.

“But that gave me no right to treat you the way I did. It especially gave me no right to call you a waste of everyone’s time. Because you’re not. And…” he bites his lip and brings his hand to scratch the nape of his neck. “And I can definitely relate to wanting to make your mum proud of you. That’s part of the reason I wanted to go to university in the first place too; so that one day I’d hopefully be able to give back to my mum.”

He returns his gaze to Louis, who’s facing him again now. He doesn’t miss the fact that Louis’ eyes jot from Zayn’s lips and back up to his eyes. Zayn holds his gaze, heart feeling like it’s going to beat out of his chest as he says the next words. “And… and I think my flat mate was right that I was also hating you as a defense mechanism to stop myself from accepting the fact that, um… I have a crush on you.”

Louis’ eyes are suddenly extremely wide, and Zayn almost wants to cry. He shouldn’t have admitted that out loud. Louis probably (no, _definitely_ ) doesn’t feel the same way about him, especially after all the messed up things Zayn’s said and done to-

A light, chaste kiss is being pressed to Zayn’s lips. He almost doesn’t register it because he’s not used to kissing Louis softly with no force. He kisses Louis back and decides he likes this even better than the angry kisses from before, and hopes this means they’ll start to have many more of them.

When they pull back, they kind of just smile at each other for a few minutes. “So,” Zayn says happily, breaking the silence. “Does this mean we forgive each other?”

Louis nods and lightly strokes Zayn’s chin. The hand feels so soft against his chin and Zayn never wants him to let go. “You know, I was half right about you.”

“Hmm?” Zayn asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I could tell we were going to be really good mates,” Louis tells him, referring to what he said to him their first day. “Only instead of ‘bro at first sight’, you might have been my like at first sight.”

Zayn blushes. It’s so cheesy and probably shouldn’t make any sense, but it does to him and he loves it. “You know, I was half right about you too.” Now it’s Louis’ turn to raise an eyebrow. “Remember how I told you I was nervous around you? It wasn’t because I hated you. It’s because part of me knew I would like you, as more than just a friend.”

The two of them grin at each other and for a moment don’t even realize the fact that the lift is opening to the last floor, until other people are getting on.

“Oh shoot!” Zayn nearly yells, running over to press the ‘door open’ button and hurrying out with Louis behind him. He quickly pulls out his phone and types in the number for the restaurant he works at. When the manager on duty finally picks up, he says quickly, “Hey, it’s Zayn Malik. I’m so sorry but I lost track of time and now something’s come up and I can’t come into work today. I’ll work a double shift on Sunday or something to make up for it.”

It’s such a half-hearted excuse, and he’s sure the person on the other line knows it, but miraculously, they just let it go. “Okay. I’ll try to find someone to cover the rest of your shift.”

“Thank you,” Zayn responds. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

Zayn hangs up and sighs with relief. “That was a close one.” He turns to Louis, who is frowning at him. “What?”

“I’m sorry I made you have to miss work,” Louis mumbles.

“It’s okay,” Zayn replies sincerely. “If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have gotten to talk to you, and probably would’ve run away again if I had tried to.”

Louis grins at him. “So, what should we do now then?”

“Hmm…” Zayn thinks. “Well before I answer that, I need to ask you something. Are we boyfriends now?”

“I… I hope so, yeah,” Louis nods happily.

“Good.” Zayn walks closer to him and whispers in his ear, “So how about we go do some, _boyfriend activities_?” He winks.

Louis looks like he’s about to melt. “Uh, sure. Yeah, I could do that.” The two boys walk back over to the lift and go up to Zayn’s floor.

 

**Louis**

‘Boyfriend activities’ that day turned out to be nothing more than watching (and crying at) sappy movies and cuddling each other until morning (the next day was a Saturday so they didn’t really have to worry about school or anything). Things have reached a happy medium in class in Louis’ opinion. Louis now only asks off-topic questions sometimes. Zayn will gently push Louis if he’s doing too much again, and Louis respects that and stops.

Louis met Zayn’s flatmate, Niall, the day of the un-stopping lift incident and they got on well pretty much instantly. Louis wanted to introduce Zayn to Liam too, but he figured it’d be a bad idea to do it that same day, when Liam still kind of side-eyed Zayn for hurting Louis.

It’s been about two months now though (Louis and Zayn both kept coming up with excuses to put it off) and Louis thinks enough is enough. Today, he and Zayn are heading to Louis’ flat to study for their art exam together, and Louis is going to make that very thing happen.

“What if your flatmate doesn’t like me?” Zayn asks for what must be the millionth time today.

“I told you,” Louis replies. “I already talked to him about it. He’s not mad at you anymore, and I’m sure he’s going to love you the second he meets you.”

“Bros at first sight huh?” Zayn winks.

Louis laughs. “Exactly.” He walks through the door, Zayn following closely behind him. “Hey Payno!” he calls, though he doesn’t actually see Liam in the room yet.

“Hey Tommo!” Liam yells after a second. “Sorry, just got out of the shower. Give me a few seconds.”

Louis invites Zayn to follow him to the living room and they sit down on the couch. They both get their notes out and set them on the table in front of them, but they don’t actually start studying. They just kind of lay there and cuddle, waiting for Liam to get dried off and dressed.

Louis still finds it hard to remember that he and Zayn are actually dating sometimes. Like, one second ago Zayn was angry-kissing him to make him be quiet or something, and now Zayn’s arms are wrapped around Louis as they cuddle on Louis’ couch. He wishes he could just box up this moment and save it for a rainy day.

Liam finally comes into the living room, interrupting Louis’ daydreaming. Grumbling, Louis removes himself from Zayn’s arms and sits up, Zayn following suite.

“Nice to see you too,” Liam says to Louis sarcastically, winking. He then turns to Zayn, whose face looks so nervous Louis wants to kiss it away. His expression seems to ease a little bit though when Liam smiles at him. “Hi! I’m Liam, he/him. I’m guessing you’re Zayn?”

“Yeah.” Zayn nods happily. “That’s me.”

“Well come on over here,” Liam commands. Zayn looks unsure at first, but walks over to him anyway and the two boys hug. It’s probably one of the most awkward hugs Louis’ ever seen, but he knows Liam's still kind of hesitant because he doesn’t want Louis to get hurt again. He’s trying though, and that’s what counts. Louis knows eventually the two of them will become best friends.

“Well, lads,” Louis says, clapping his hands. “Let’s get started.”

“Right, of course.” Liam starts to walk away. “Good luck with studying.”

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Louis asks, stopping him.

“Uh… Leaving so you two can study?”

“No. We’re gonna study, and in between studying, we’re gonna learn more about each other.”

“But I’m not in an art class,” Liam points out.

“So? Come sit.” Louis motions to either side of him, and the two boys go to sit next to him.

Zayn and Louis end up not getting much studying done, but by the time Zayn leaves, he and Liam seem to be starting a beautiful friendship, which Louis counts as a success.

“Are you sure you can trust him?” Liam asks seriously when the two of them are preparing to go to bed.

“Yes.” Louis smiles genuinely. “We talked out all our feelings in an un-stopping lift. I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

Liam giggles. “When did you become such a sap?”

“Zayn must’ve taught me.” Louis shrugs.

Liam shakes his head fondly. “Goodnight, Louis.”

“Goodnight, Liam.” The two boys hug and head to their beds. Louis has a dream where he marries Zayn. He hopes it comes true one day (minus the part where a frog hopped out of their wedding cake and said ‘I object!’, but he doubts any frogs will object).

 

**Zayn**

It’s the last week before exams start, and Zayn is freaking out. He and Louis have been studying together more (and have NOT been getting distracted as easily as before, no matter what Liam may tell you otherwise), but that doesn’t make it any easier.

Not to mention the fact that in addition to an exam, the students also have to each come up with a final project. Ms. Smith is not really picky about what medium they choose, but Zayn wants it to be really, really good. So naturally, instead of getting started on it, he’s been taking long naps and procrastinating on it.

However, he can’t procrastinate forever, especially when they still have to go to class this week. So here he is, in art class with the rest of the freaking out students, looking around for a blank canvas. Louis isn’t here today. It makes Zayn kind of sad, but he knows Louis loves to skip the last week of school, so he isn’t too surprised.

“Hey Zayn,” Ms. Smith says. “I think I remember putting a blank canvas or two in that cupboard over there.”

“Thanks,” Zayn responds, walking over to the cupboard she pointed out. When he first opens it, he immediately wants to scream, but he can’t. There’s… there’s a person squished inside this cupboard. A person called Louis Tomlinson.

“Shh,” Louis whispers. “I’m hiding.”

“Louis?!” Zayn whisper-yells. He looks around the room and no one’s paying him any mind, too busy with their own freak-outs. “Louis, what the heck are you doing in there?! How did you even – how did you even _fit_ in there?”

Louis shrugs – or what Zayn assumes is a shrug at least. It’s hard to tell when Louis is all bunched up together like that. “I don’t know. I guess this cupboard must be bigger inside than it seemed from the outside, because my mum said I was 5’9.”

Zayn rolls his eyes. Louis seriously needs to stop living in denial about his real height (which is a heck of a lot smaller than 5’9). “And as for the why,” Louis continues. “I already told you. I’m hiding. Want a canvas? They’re just above me.”

Suddenly Zayn doesn’t care about the dumb canvas anymore though. “But _why_ are you hiding, Louis? Is this about the project, babe? Are you scared about getting a bad grade or something? Because I am right there with you.”

“It’s not _just_ about the project, Zayn,” Louis admits. “I’m afraid of everything. The project, the exams… of not being good enough.”

Zayn frowns. “Louis, please come out of there. Please. I can’t hug your squished up figure.”

“Can’t I just rot in here instead and pretend responsibility doesn’t exist?” Louis whines.

“Well, you can,” Zayn agrees. “But which one do you think would be a better idea: lying in there day after day until suddenly the people who work here, as well as your loved ones, wonder why they haven’t heard from you in a long time? And one day Ms. Smith finds you just lying in here, wondering (along with your family and friends) how long you’ve been there? And maybe she’d tell the people in charge and they’d be like ‘huh, this guy hasn’t done his exams at all.’ Because I’m pretty sure that’s a crime. And not to mention Liam has to pay for your flat all on his own?

“Or,” Zayn continues. “Is it a better idea to just suck it up, take a few exams, do a few projects, and if you fail, re-take the class or semester, and have a ton of family and friends by your side to help you through it?” Zayn shakes his head. “You think you’re the only one who wishes he could just escape responsibilities? No. You think I don’t sometimes wish I could do the same: just squish inside a cupboard and pretend the world doesn’t exist sometimes?”

Zayn looks at the ceiling for a moment, tears in his eyes. “Heck, I’ve been procrastinating on this darn project for who knows how long. But I won’t give up. Not on creating a better future, not on passing, not on myself, and definitely not on you.”

He turns to face Louis again, eyes blurring out Louis’ face a little. “Because pretending it’s not there doesn’t make it go away. It just makes things worse when you try to find it again. So you’ve gotta never lose sight of it, never lose sight of your dreams, your goals, the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Before either has a time to blink, Louis gets out of the cupboard and falls into Zayn’s arms, crying his eyes out. “I’m so sorry Zayn. My mum would not be proud of me for thinking like this.”

“But she _will_ be proud of you for trying your best, babe,” Zayn assures him, hugging him tight. He lifts Louis’ face to his. “Promise me, promise me you’ll try.”

Louis nods his head viciously. “I… I promise.”

The two boys share a small kiss, and evidently somewhere along the line they’d gotten louder than they meant to, because the other students and Ms. Smith are looking at them and clapping, some students even having small tears in their eyes. Zayn and Louis smile at them and at each other and somehow, they both know that it’s all going to be okay.

***

“I passed!” Louis yells. Exams ended a few weeks ago, and while Zayn and Louis haven’t been able to meet up as much as they’d like to because their hours increase over break, they still call each other every day when they can.

“You did?” Zayn replies excitedly. “Which one did you pass?”

“I passed ALL of them!” Louis announces, smile obvious in his voice. “Even dumb Mr. Repass’ history exam. Surprised he even let me take it without dropping me first to be honest.”

“Babe, that’s so awesome,” Zayn tells him. “Did your art project come back in the mail too?”

“Yep.” Louis confirms. “I passed that as well. Oh, and also, I really need to show it to you. Did you get yours back yet too?”

“I did, I did,” Zayn giggles. “The two of us need to show them to each other sometime.”

“Yeah,” Louis responds. “I’ll let you know what time in the next century I’m actually free and we’ll do it.”

Zayn laughs. “Right back at’cha.” He looks at the time. “Well, I’ve gotta go now. Congrats on passing! I l-”

“Wait,” Louis interrupts. “What did you get?”

“Hmm…” Zayn thinks, stroking his chin even though he knows Louis can’t see it.

“I know you’re doing that weird chin stroking thing, Zayn. Just get to the point.”

Zayn chuckles. Louis knows him so well. “Alright, alright. I passed too!”

“Yay!” Louis cheers. “Okay, now we _need_ to have a celebration at some point.”

“Alright, call me in the next century,” Zayn jokes. “I’ve really gotta go right now though, I’m afraid. Goodbye, Louis. Congrats on passing.”

“To you as well, Zayn,” Louis says. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Zayn makes a few kissy noises and then turns off the phone before Louis can call him a sap.

 

**Louis**

Louis can’t believe it. It’s been two weeks since they got their grades back and he still can’t believe it. He passed. Even though it’s just his first semester, he really feels like he’s accomplished something big. He kind of has.

He tries to stay focused. There’s still a lot more to go, and right now he needs to get to work. He gets onto the lift to go down and get his car.

“Darn thing takes forever to close!” Louis complains, pressing the door closed button. Right before it finally closes though, someone else gets in. Someone with black hair. Someone wearing a red shirt. Someone who just pressed all the buttons so the two of them will be stuck in here for a while. Louis laughs loudly. “You’re not allowed to steal pranks. It’s against the unwritten pranking rules, you know.”

“Well, I’m sorry for breaking the oh-so-important pranking rules,” Zayn replies fake-seriously. “But it turns out I can’t wait another century to show you. I need to show you my project now.”

Louis smirks widely and shows Zayn his bag, which is drooping way lower than it should be because of the art project weighing it down. “I was hoping you’d find a way.” With that the two of them start scrambling for their projects.

“Wait,” Zayn says excitedly. “Can I show you mine first?”

“When you look like a little kid who’s begging his mum for extra candy, how can I say no?” Louis winks. Zayn’s eyes light up at that and it’s so cute, Louis can’t take it.

“Alright, close your eyes.” Louis obliges, waiting as he hears Zayn scramble around in his bag. “Okay, open them.”

When Louis does, he gasps. Zayn painted a picture… of him. There’s light around him, as if he’s an angel or something.

“Is that… Did you paint me as the light at the end of the tunnel?”

Zayn nods quickly. “Do you like it?”

“I… I love it,” Louis replies, hugging Zayn (carefully, so as not to make the painting fall). When they break their hug, Louis knows it’s his turn to show Zayn his. Suddenly he feels super self-conscious. “Listen. I may have passed, but that doesn’t mean that mine’s going to be any good. So don’t get your hopes up or anything. She probably just passed me out of pity…”

“Louis!” Zayn objects. “Stop talking down on yourself. I’m sure it’s great.”

Louis takes a few deep breaths and reaches down into his bag. He pulls out a sketch of Zayn and him kissing. It took him pretty much all day and night every day and night, and it still looks a bit crummy in some places, but Zayn’s awestruck expression lightens his mood by a lot.

“Do you like it?” he asks warily.

“Yes!” Zayn nearly yells. “Absolutely! What are you talking about ‘she passed me out of pity’? This sketch is fantastic! I knew you could do it.” The two of them hug for a long time, and once again don’t even realize they’ve reached the floor until other people come in and the two of them have to scurry out. “Sorry I made you late for your job…”

“See? Now you’re stealing my line too!” Louis teases. “Gosh, what are the prank rule keepers going to say?” He winks. “But I was thinking of not going anyway.”

“Just like that?” Zayn asks. “You’re not gonna call and tell them or anything?”

“Nah,” Louis shrugs. “Come on Zayn, why are you so responsible and stuff? Let’s go back up to my flat. Liam’s there and we can all celebrate passing.” He starts to turn around, then thinks of something. “Unless, you have to go to work too.”

“Nope,” Zayn denies. “I have today off.”

With that, the two of them go back up the lift to Louis’ floor and head to his and Liam’s flat. It’s like Zayn had said – Louis never lost sight of his dreams, his goals. He’s decided after this semester, he wants to declare his major as an artist. He’s also found his light at the end of the tunnel – and he’s not planning on losing sight of him.


	3. Epilogue

Ten years later, Zayn and Louis are married. They graduated as artists with the class of 2016. Once or twice, one of them would have to re-take a few classes, but they got through it together. Eventually (after talking about it with Liam and Niall), they moved out of their flats and rented a new one together.

It wasn’t completely easy of course. Sometimes Louis would forget to wash the dishes, or Zayn would forget to tell Louis that someone else was coming over, and they’d have disagreements. Eventually though, they'd always work it out.

Louis proposed to Zayn by – you guessed it – pressing all the buttons on the lift (which Zayn didn’t think was that necessary honestly, but it was like their _thing_ so he didn’t say anything about it). Sometimes the two of them will go back to the lift at their old apartment and press all the buttons just like old times. Zayn’s pretty sure all the people who live there right now hate the two of them, but he doesn’t care.

Occasionally Zayn will think about how this all started and cringe at the idea he could ever have hated Louis for something as silly as him asking dumb questions. What matters though is that now, the two of them are together and better than ever.

“So,” Zayn says, breaking the silence. “We’ve been painting and sketching all day. Can we stop practicing our majors in art for right now and practice our major in sleep for a little bit?”

Louis laughs. “Thought you’d never ask.” The two boys head to their bedroom and just cuddle, not even caring about the time or what else they have to do today.

With his eyes closed and arms around Louis, Zayn just thinks about how grateful he is. He had gone to uni to become something, and he figured out what that something was: a man who’s in love with a man named Louis Tomlinson. He’s so glad he figured that out ten years ago, and he’s sure it’ll stay true for many more decades to come.


End file.
